Meeting The Family

"Okay Guys, we're almost there." Shannon said from the driver's seat. She had basically begged Carson to go back to her home town and meet her family, and as a compromise, she said he could bring his brothers. That is how Shannon found herself stuck in a car with Carson, Chris, Kurt, Blaine, and Finn for five hours.

She had grown up in a small town in Western New York, so it wasn't as far as Ohio, but by the time they had reached the 'welcome to town' sign, they were all kind of tired of each other.

Once they entered the small town, everyone seemed to perk up some as they looked out the window and listened to Shannon describe everything.

"Oh! There's where I had my first job! That cute little ice cream shop there! We HAVE to go in there some time before we head back to the city. Did you know they have the biggest selection of ice cream in western New York? Not to mention how good their homemade flavors are! I wonder if there are any new ones? Oh! There's my old school! The high school and middle school were sort of joined." She laughed, thinking back on fond memories. "Go Bulldogs!"

Carson watched her from the passenger seat and fell in love with her all over again. For a moment, he forgot he was about to meet his girlfriend's parents for the first time.

Kurt saw the love struck look Carson was giving to Shannon as she talked non-stop about her hometown. They had only been dating for three months, but it was very obvious to everyone but Shannon how much she meant to him.

Shannon slowed down and started to turn into a drive way. Carson thought that it was a really nice house, with flowers and bird feeders all throughout the lawn. The house was a pale yellow, with brick accent. Carson smiled when he imagined Shannon growing up here.

Slowly, everyone began to get out of the car, stiff from the long drive. Carson heard the swing of a screen door and people approaching before he saw them.

"Hey guys!" Shannon said as she walked towards her family. She hugged everyone before stepping back to make introductions.
She started by introducing her family to her friends. "Guys, this is my mom, my dad, my sister Bridget, and my brother Jesse." Shannon then took a step towards the brothers and turned to look at her family. "Everyone, this is Chris, Finn, Kurt, Kurt's husband Blaine, and Carson."

Shannon's mom stepped forward to shake hands with everyone. "Call me Mary Jo." She said to everyone.

Carson noticed that Shannon looked a lot like her. Same facial features, same height. Then he saw her eyes. That same deep chocolate brown. Shannon's sister Bridget basically looked like a blonde version of Shannon. Carson was slightly disappointed to see that the girls eyes weren't that rich brown, but a soft blue instead. Jesse seemed to be a male version of Shannon, with short brown hair and glasses. His eyes were also blue.

When Mary Jo got to Carson, she smiled warmly. "It's nice to meet you Carson."

"You too." Carson said politely, a little overwhelmed. Carson turned to Shannon's father, and then realized he had to look up a lot just to see his face. The man was really tall and balding slightly, with deep green eyes. He had an odd expression on his face, and Carson began to worry what that meant.

Her father spoke up for the first time, directing is voice towards Blaine and Finn. "So how do you tell them apart?" Unbeknownst to everyone, Carson relaxed dramatically.

Everyone that just drove down from New York burst out laughing. That was kind of an inside joke, one with a good story for later, Carson thought to himself.

"A good story for later." Blaine said, practically reading Carson's mind.

"Well come on guys, let's go out back and relax. I bet your ride was long and brutal." Bridget said, and everyone began to follow her around the house. The back yard was just as nice as the front yard, only bigger. There was a little shed hidden away in the back corner, a volleyball net set up in the middle of the yard, and an above ground pool with a big pool deck attached to the back of the house. A little fire pit ring with lawn chairs around it was in another corner, and all along the property's edge was different types of fruit growing. Blackberries, blueberries, grapes, cherries, raspberries, apples, pears, and that's not including whatever was growing in the cute little garden in a third corner.

Everyone kind of went in their own direction. Shannon went over to the fire pit ring and sat in chairs with her parents to talk about school. Bridget dragged Chris and Blaine towards the volleyball net. Jesse seemed bored already, so he asked Finn if he wanted to play video games inside.

"So, what are you going to do? Are you going to go over there and sit and talk with her parents?" Kurt questioned when it was just him and Carson left.

Carson hesitated. "I don't know, should I?"

Kurt nodded, giving his brother an encouraging smile before walking towards the volleyball net.

Battling his nerves, Carson went and joined the trio at the fire ring. They were in the middle of discussing plans for the following semester.

"What are you studying at NorthWestern Carson?" Shannon's dad, David, asked, bringing him into the conversation.

"Journalism. I want to someday write for the big newspapers in New York."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Mary Jo said. "How many more years do you have of school left?"

"Just one. So I'll finish the same time as Shannon." Carson said, referring to the fact that she had finished a year of college classes in high school.

The four continued to talk for a few more minutes. For Carson, it got less awkward the longer he sat. Every now and then he'd cast a glance towards Shannon to she what she thought of everything. Every time she caught him looking at her, she gave him a big beautiful smile.

"Hey Shannon!" Her sister shouted across the yard, interrupting a discussion about plans after college. "Come play! It's been forever since we've peppered."

Laughing, Shannon got up from her lawn chair. As an after thought, she turned to her boyfriend. "Ready for a game?"

Carson nodded, happy for a break from the constant questions. He got up and followed her to the volleyball net.

Bridget was standing on one side with Kurt, while Chris and Blaine were on the other. When Shannon left Carson's side to go join Chris and Blaine, Carson became slightly nervous.

"Shannon and I can't be on the same team for games like this." Bridget explained when she saw Carson's face. "We just can't."

"Let's go!" Shannon shouted from the other side of the net. "Who's serving first?"

"I will." Her sister said as she walked to the back of the court. She threw the ball up and smacked it hard. The ball flew over the net, straight towards Blaine.

Blaine hesitated when he saw it was flying at him, but then he tried to set it high into the air. When Chris took a step back, away from the ball, Shannon went and bumped it over the net.

The ball sailed towards Kurt, and he tried to set it like Blaine had. His wasn't as neat, but nobody dared call him out on it. Bridget was their to set the second pass, and she pushed it to the pole of the net so someone could hit it.

Carson remembered learning how to hit in high school gym class, so he decided to try to hit the ball. When Bridget's set was just above the net, Carson ran forward and hit it hard.

When Carson landed on the ground again, he looked to the other side of the net to see where it had gone. He was confused when he didn't see it, so he turned around, only to find it rolling across his side of the court.

"Sorry babe," Shannon said beyond the net. "But you got blocked."

It took Carson a moment to remember that Shannon's position on every team she'd ever played on was middle. Middle blocker to be precise.

"Nice Shane!" Blaine said from behind her. Carson was impressed. He had never seen her play in an actual game, but it was apparent that she was pretty good.

"Food is here!" Mary Jo shouted from the top of the back porch. Everyone in the yard left the game to enter the house.

The inside was just as nice as the outside. One could say it was on the small side, especially when there were five extra people present, but Carson decided that it was just very cozy.

The kitchen table was laden with all different kinds of Chinese food. "Everybody help yourself, take as much as you'd like." David said as he brought the last bag of food into the house. Jesse and Finn entered the kitchen through a door that led to a basement.

"Dude," Finn whispered into Carson's ear as quietly as he could. "They have a huge furnished basement down there. On top of that, they have every game station imaginable."

Behind Finn, Shannon's familiar laugh echoed through the tiny kitchen. "You can thank my dad and brother for that. Jesse loves video games, and every time my dad wants something, he just buys it."

Finn smiled back at her, his cheeks a little red from the embarrassment of being heard.

Once everyone had had their fill of food, Shannon suggested desert. "I can run up town and get some ice cream, what kinds do you want?" She took everyone's order, and then turned to Carson. "Do you mind coming with me? I'm going to need some help carrying it."

Carson smiled softly. "Of course." Together, they headed back out to her car. They drove back up town to the ice cream shop they had passed earlier.

Shannon was the first to enter the little shop. It was obvious that she was excited to be back to the place she used to work.

Carson took a look around, and instantly loved it. For an ice cream shop, it looked cozy and homey. It was as if this was the type of place a family could easily sit down and enjoy a meal.

As they walked past some tables and booths, they reached the glass that covered the tubs of ice cream. Carson looked at the many different flavors in amazement. There were so many!

An older man walked out from a back room to greet them. "Well if it isn't Smokey in the flesh!" He said with a kind smile.

Shannon smiled too. "Hey Jeff! It's good to be back. Decided I couldn't pass through without picking up some ice cream."

"I'd be sad if you did. So what can I get ya?" He said as he went to grab a scooper. Shannon pulled out the list she'd made.

"I think we'll do everything as a small." She began. The older man nodded and she continued. "Let's do one vanilla, a mint chocolate chip, a soft serve twist, one strawberry, two lemon ices, one black berry cheese cake, one midnight delight, and a half midnight delight half peanut butter cup."

Jeff chuckled as he continued to scoop the ice cream. "Well I see you haven't changed your favorite." He handed her the peanut buttery dish.

Shannon grinned. "Nope. Never. I love chocolate and peanut butter." She turned to look at Carson. "So what do you think you want? You can try any flavor, he'll give you a little taster spoon."

Carson took that as an opportunity, so he tried many. The midnight delight was a rich dark chocolate with dark chocolate pieces. There was a buttery popcorn flavored one, a graham cracker flavored one, a s'mores one, an eclair one, a coffee one, and a toffee one.

"Wait, what's that one?" He said, pointing to one homemade flavor called 'Bulldog Crunch'.

Shannon beat her old boss to the punch and answered his question. "Our school mascot here is the bulldog and our colors are orange and blue. The ice cream is a vanilla base with blue and orange m+m's and swirls of hot fudge."

"Well then that's what I'm getting." Carson said decisively.

Shannon laughed. "Well aren't you school spirited."

Once all of the ice cream was packaged away in a box for the car ride, Shannon turned to say good bye.

"Come back soon, Shannon. There will be plenty of ice cream here waiting." Jeff said from behind the glass.

As they left the little shop, Carson remembered something. "Wait, why did he call you Smokey?"

Shannon burst out a laugh as she set the ice cream in the back seat. "Once, when I was there by myself, the soft serve machine started smoking and screaming. I was sixteen, and had only worked there for a year, and I had somehow screwed up that badly." Shannon laughed again at the look plastered on Carson's face. "It wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was opening the shop so there weren't any customers. Turned out the machine had burned through two belts because the last person to turn it on had frozen the ice cream too much. So in the end it wasn't even my fault."

Carson nodded from the passenger seat. As she started to head back to the house, Carson said, "that must have been terrifying."

She nodded. "Yeah, I thought I was going to get fired. Instead all I got was a new nick name."

They reached the house and walked inside with all the ice cream. They distributed it out and began to eat their own.

Carson thought that the day had gone as good as it could've. Her parents seemed to like him, and her siblings were kind.

He looked up to find her staring back. Yeah, Carson wasn't going anywhere.